PEA (palmitoylethanolamide) inhibits TLR4

12/04/2013 — Nancy Sajben MD

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New insight into the mechanism of action of palmitoylethanolamide was presented in 2013 at EFIC, a Congress for European Pain Specialists:

. “… Dr Svik Assaw and colleagues from the School of Life Sciences, Medical School, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom presented new exciting data on the mechanism of action of the fatty acid amide N-Palmitoyethanoalamide (PEA) and presented the effects of PEA after activation of toll-like receptors (TLRs) by the inflammatory substance carrageenan.”

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1. PEA inhibits chemotaxis of monocytes, but not neutrophils (clearly a sign that PEA downregulates chronic inflammation but not acute inflammation)

2. PEA decrease in the carrageenan induced induction of the pro-inflammatory genes IL-1b, CCL4 and NOS2 in the inflamed skin.